the debt ceiling bill contained a little noticed debt bomb, which just got lit.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Remember that the debt ceiling bill, as passed, was to give Treasury about 400 billion more bucks so that the USA would not default...right?
Well, it is already spent.
But
there was a hardly discussed provision in the bill that allows the President to RAISE the debt ceiling
again.
And Pres. Obama just did it, 2 days ago, by 500 billion bucks.
The bill provision is cleverly crafted so Congress avoids blame...and even discussion..of any future ceiling increases, leaving it to the President to raise the debt limit.
this article in WSJ explains how it is done:

"The increase stems from a deal between Congress and the White House, finalized last month, that spells out how the borrowing limit would be increased by $500 billion.
Under the process, lawmakers in both the House and Senate must vote on a resolution of disapproval against the increase in the borrowing limit.
President Barack Obama would then have to veto the resolution of disapproval, and Congress would then vote to try and override that veto.

The complicated procedure, designed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), would allow an increase of the borrowing limit while allowing most Republicans to vote against such an increase.

There was a twist in this scenario Thursday evening, however. Democrats held firm, rejecting the resolution of disapproval, thereby speeding the process and increasing the borrowing limit immediately.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2011/09/08/senate-approves-500-billion-increase-in-borrowing-authority/?mod=google_news_blog

so instead of 400 billion total added debt between now and Jan. as was originally discussed, we now have 900 billion total increase in the national debt, in just 2 months.

[msongs]

1. evidently failure to veto = acceptance of responsibility. sounds upfront to me nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. The point is that Congress can passively sit on its hands and do nothing

allowing the ceiling increase.
Thus no need for the Pres. to veto anything, he just raises the debt limit.
No publicity, no discussion, no debate, no Congressional vote.
No blame on Congress for putting us further in debt or for doing nothing to solve the problem.

More succinct way to put it:
The debt limit would increase automatically unless voted down by the Senate.

[bluestateguy]

2. Only teabaggers will be angered if the debt ceiling is raised

and they ain't voting Democratic anyway.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. Raising the debt ceiling is a non-issue.

How exactly is raising the ceiling a 'debt bomb'?

[fasttense]

4. Good, cutting the deficit in the middle of the 2nd RepubliCON Great Depression is just stupid. n/t

[Hawkowl]

5. A Republican political bet

This is a strategic Republican political move. The thinking goes that the economy is going down the shitter once again, so why not give the President enough rope to hang himself? Specifically, the Republicans are going to blame this latest economic period of negative GDP growth and spike in unemployment on unfettered deficit spending. This is of course nonsensical, seeing that government spending increases GDP and employment.

However, we see that Obama holds a very similar conservative economic view when he pushes for cuts, er "reforms", in entitlements coupled with tax cuts and de-regulation to jump start the economy. If Obama continues to parrot these talking points, he will be unable to refute this disastrous austerity argument with a credible competing economic recovery plan. In other words, the Republicans have a better than even chance of winning the political argument while destroying the economy for ANOTHER ten years.

[golfguru]

7. Looks like we will be speaking Greek pretty soon

Join the club of overextended, overdebted, bankruptcy club.